Shingles

[guiltynetter]

So after kissing and cuddling my gorgeous 2 year old niece yesterday, turns out today she’s been diagnosed with shingles! the GP asked my sister if she had been into contact with any pregnant women - yes, me. I’m 23 weeks. he said I’d be okay if i’ve had chickenpox when i was younger, i know i did and my DD has also had chickenpox, so should i not do anything about it? I know hypothetically i should be fine but im busy worrying a tiny bit!

Had a similar panic... GP did a blood test because there is an injection they can give you if you need it. I think if you had chicken pox though you're fine but I'm not certain...

anybody else had any experiences?

I had shingles when pregnant (about 19/20 weeks). There were no I’ll effects. I was prescribed antiviral medication (acyclovir) and got over it relatively quickly. That baby is almost 6 now and the only side effect for her seems to be greater immunity to chicken pox as she’s been exposed many times and not caught it yet.

I had shingles when expecting DS2. I've never felt quite so unwell. I had a blood test at the doctors and ended up with some medication. Is highly suggest getting the blood test. While my son was perfectly fine I was so incredibly sick :( and still have scars 5 years later from where I itched and caused damage.

A friend of ours had shingles when I was pregnant. Apparently there's only a risk if you haven't had chickenpox and if you touch the rash itself. Or that's what I read anyway.

Shingles is a local thing as it's latent after chickenpox infection in some nerve endings (not all).

As long as you have had chicken pox in the past you will be fine. If in doubt go you your gp they can test do a blood test to make sure you have immunity. If for some reason you don't they can give you an injection of immunoglobin that should shot you contracting it. Happens often.

Shot = stop.
My auto correct sucks

Ring your triage unit...they can usually add on the blood test to the ones you had at your initial booking appointment. If you come back immune then there is nothing to worry about.